The extreme temperatures of the winter months can intimidate anyone considering adding pigs to their homestead. When we started raising pigs for meat, I never thought they would be able to survive (and stay healthy) when the thermometer hit ten degrees, nevermind negative two. But after doing some research, I quickly learned that it’s really simple and pretty cheap to keep your hungry friends happy all winter long. “Round Pig,” (affectionately named by my hubby) is the last of our hogs. Since she hasn’t made it to the freezer with the rest of her friends, it’s our job to keep her healthy and comfortable until it’s time to butcher her. 
You can easily customize your shelter based on your needs and what items you have available to you. This particular shelter is approximately five feet tall, with an opening of about four feet wide. It sits on runners made from eight foot 4 x 4’s. The entire structure is built using scrap wood, such as recovered 2 x 4’s. The exterior has been wrapped with 6 mm waterproof plastic sheeting, being sure to allow for air flow and prevent moisture buildup, and has wood paneling as siding for protection from wind. To prevent excessive damage from the pigs’ natural chewing and rubbing habits (note the front of this shelter where Round Pig has busted through), we have covered the walls with woven wire fencing. You can do this on both the inside and outside of the wall (note that we only did it on the interior for this particular structure).
This structure has served us well, accomodating a few different groups. You can use a shelter this size to comfortably house:
10 piglets up to about 8 weeks in size
6 feeder pigs up to about 80 lbs each
4 pigs up to about 150 lbs each
2 hogs up to about 250 lbs each
We’ve never raised a pig but I’ve been wanting to try it when we move to more land. It gets really cold her in MT in the winters so this was really helpful since keeping a pig warm during winter was a worry for us!
I am totally new at blogging so bare with me. We talked about getting pigs but I know when I had raised them growing up that we had a cement bottom in the pen so they couldn’t dig out. Do your pigs ever dig under the fence and how much roto rooting do they do to the pasture? We have a steer that gets thru the electric fence when he gets board and we had an emu on the loose last summer that we were ready to have for dinner. There is nothing like having your neighbors drive down the road and have a jurassic park like creature running along side. I don’t know if I would be up to pig chasing.
Hi Debgeise – Ask as many questions as you like & I’ll do my best to answer! As for our pigs, no – we have not had a problem with them getting out. We use some cattle panel, but most of the area is just set up with strands of heavy-duty electric fencing. We have had them in difference areas, such as the garden & take advantage of their natural rooting to turn the soil for us and clear out end of garden growth. Depending on how long they are in an area and how large it is/how many pigs, they may or may not root up the entire area. Our pigs could easily have gotten out on multiple occasions (sometimes the electric fencing was turned off), but it’s not been a problem. We have had a pig “accidentally” get out once (ran through the fencing) but just ended up standing there & trying to get back in with the others! In my experience, as long as the pigs have room to roam, are fed and kept happy, they prefer to stay in their home. And it also helps to have more than one pig – if they have company, they don’t get into nearly as much trouble (and this seems to apply to all of our animals!) or have the same temptation to try and leave.
We have never raised pigs. We get our meat from a local farmer that I trust. I will have to pass this along to him!!
I would love to raise pigs one day. My dad raised a couple last year and really enjoyed it.
Yes, I raise pigs. I wonder why Round Pig doesn’t get a boyfriend about now and make more pigs for you. Humanely raised pork makes for big $$$ at the butcher these days. I already have all of my first litters sold and their parents aren’t even raised yet!! For a few more pallet, hay and effort you could be looking at prime pork sales by July.
Great tips here and if I were to raise them and sell them does anybody know how much they go for? And where you would sell them at?
It is highly dependent on both the market you are in, as well as the breed of pig. You could sell them locally via facebook or Craigslist.
Great post! We will be butchering our pigs in January but it might get cold by then. We have a nice shed for our pigs but we will add in bedding that the can snuggle in.